- Date Of Birth: September 16, 1934
- Date Of Death: March 22, 2021
- Occupation: Basketball player, coach and executive
- City: Los Angeles
- State: California
Elgin Gay Baylor (September 16, 1934 – March 22, 2021) was an American professional basketball player, coach, and executive. He played 14 seasons as a forward in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers, appearing in eight NBA Finals.
Baylor was a gifted shooter, a strong rebounder, and an accomplished passer, who was best known for his trademark hanging jump shot. The No. 1 draft pick in 1958, NBA Rookie of the Year in 1959, 11-time NBA All-Star, and a 10-time member of the All-NBA first team, he is regarded as one of the game’s all-time greatest players. In 1977, Baylor was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1996, Baylor was named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. In October 2021, Baylor was again honored as one of the league’s greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team.
Baylor spent 22 years as general manager of the Los Angeles Clippers. He won the NBA Executive of the Year Award in 2006. Two years later he was relieved of his executive duties by the Clippers shortly before the 2008–09 season began.
His popularity led to appearances on the television series Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In in 1968; the Jackson Five’s first TV special in 1971; a Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode “Olympiad”; and an episode of The White Shadow titled “If Your Number’s Up, Get Down”.
Baylor died on March 22, 2021, at age 86 of natural causes. He was survived by his wife Elaine and their daughter Krystle, as well as two children from a previous marriage: a son, Alan, and a daughter, Alison. – Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License from Wikipedia.
